Is This Supposed to Help?

I use my computer and its high speed Internet access in really crappy ways. I do not use it for anything even remotely for what it was built for. I don't do any wonderful gaming (although I play lots of stupid little games) nor do I create movies or make music or do any of the myriad things Bill Gates likes to think I might want to do with a computer.

I do a lot of word processing. Mostly what I do is word processing. I then copy and paste that into my web page maker and post some of it on the web. I play a few really simple games (game size rarely exceeds 50 MB so you know they aren't all that wonderful). And I read stuff on the web.

That last part is getting more and more annoying. I've always been curious about other people's lives. I don't know if everyone is a voyeur like this, but I always have been. I guess it is controlled gossip. Even as a kid, I read Dear Abby in the family newspaper, along with the comics. There really isn't much else in a newspaper for a kid.

With the Internet, I can read Dear Abby and Annie's Mailbox online. Great. This is twice the gossip. Annie's Mailbox's hosting site started with the pop-under ads a long time ago. They are annoying. They take your focus away from the web page you are viewing and when you try to scroll nothing happens. I know how to right-click on the second IE page on my taskbar and click Close on it and basically ignore it. But it is a pain.

Dear Abby threw in a couple of these this past week. I hate these things. I would never, ever, not ever click on one. It only encourages the people making my online experience annoying. I understand revenue streams. I even click on the occasional ad embedded in the pages. I hate these new windows.

I began using Webshots when the whole thing was free. Then they went to a paid subscription and I can only get some of the pictures, and so many folders, and the most I can download is five pictures per day. Unless I pay. I don't pay. I have almost 4,000 pictures to scroll through for my desktop and screensaver. That is enough. They have, however, started a new ad campaign that is horrible. It plays a darling little movie instead of giving me the picture I clicked on. I can either reload the page or click Close on the movie. I would never, ever, not ever click on the ad or use any service that couldn't figure out how to be less intrusive. People stuck with dial-up are more than annoyed, since this large download literally makes it impossible for them.

I know I'm not a very good consumer. I buy groceries. More than I really need, even. But that doesn't help boost the economy so much. I don't online shop. I don't have a PayPal account. I don't have an eBay account, or an Amazon account. I don't watch television so I'm not pressured to buy a lot of crap I don't need for 8 minutes out of each half hour.

I have a house and car. I've got two closets and three dressers full of clothes and shoes. My computer still works and my office is stuffed with candles and paper. And as I mentioned above, I buy groceries. There really isn't anything I need. And to annoy me to the ends of the earth is no way to induce me to buy it. Or use it. Or whatever it is they hope to gain with ads. I really don't know what the goal is, as I never read them. I click Go Away Scumbag and then get on with my perusing the page I opened. All by myself. Without pop-ups or pop-unders.

If everyone was like-minded, if everyone simply ignored them, they would go away. But someone, somewhere, is clicking on them. I hope the afterlife is full of mouse click after mouse click after mouse click after …

Anyway, I hope those morons get what they so richly deserve. They probably buy from telemarketers, too.